First attempt at aquascaping!
- Thread starter BryanCaruso
- Start date
BryanCaruso
New member
The rocks were acid soaked and bleached
Pife
Active member
I thought they were vinegar soaked?
It's way different from acid. Muratic acid would have removed a layer of rock and shed anything that was bound in that layer of rock.
BryanCaruso
New member
Well vinegar yes which is acidic
Tigé21v
Active member
(This is my understanding of the muriatic acid vs. acetic acid (aka vinegar. If I am off point, someone please step in and correct me.)
Muriatic acid is in essence a watered-down version of hydrochloric acid. If it is a 30% solution it means it's 30% hydrochloric acid. and used at a 10:1 water:acid ratio (a fairly common ratio), you would have an acid concentration of 2.72%. If you used household vinegar, (5% acetic acid), you would need to use vinegar at a little more than a 1:1 ratio. Actually even more than that, since muriatic (hydrochloric) acid is a stronger acid than acetic acid
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-d...tic-acid-having-same-volume-and-concentration
I am in no way trying to tell you how to do things. I am just trying to point out that magnets, especially rare earth (neodymium) magnets have a lot of trace meatals that leach out when exposed to water, especially in a saltwater environment. If you're saying that magnet sat corroding in that tank full of saltwater for four years, I'd be willing to bet that Mother Nature has moved those unwanted trace elements a little deeper into that rock than an acetic acid bath was able to get to. Probably deeper than any acid bath can get to.
What was the ratio of vinegar you used? I don't know.
How long did you let it soak? I don't know.
Did you do soak it in vinegar more than one time? I don't know.
Were you able to get all the nasties that may have possibly leached into the rock (after being exposed to them for up to four years) out of the rock? I honestly couldn't tell you. Only an in-depth water test (Triton test) of water that has been in that new setup and exposed for a period of time (I'd think at least a month , and with no water changes) could possibly help to give you insight into whether the rock is contaminated permanently or not.
Could anything leaching out be removed with a treated filter pad (something like a Marine Bio Poly Pad)? I don't know. I do know it would be an added expense.
Will it harm your fish? I don't know.
Will it harm your invertebrates/ corals? THAT I do know. There are numerous threads here on RC about how someone had their tank full of corals go from flourishing to dying almost overnight, and a bad magnet was eventually found to be the culprit. I guess the magnet could've been corroding in their tank for four years, but I kind of doubt it.
Mr. C, I'm not trying to preach to you, or tell you what to do. And I most certainly am not trying to take the wind out of your sails. Just the contrary. I can tell by the number of threads you've started on here that you're running on a full head of steam. You're posting your questions to learn. In fact, it seems you've been the catalyst for most of the traffic through this forum for the past couple of weeks.:thumbsup: If you are indeed committing to have a successful tank, why take the risk and set yourself up for failure over some rock that could possibly be contaminated?? If down the line you do indeed have issues related to that rock, you may never know for sure if the rock is the culprit. If you are like most of us, you'll go through months of torment, your pockets will be empty from buying everything you think may be the magic bullet, and, worst of all, will be the loss of livestock. Best case scenario, you get fed up with the current tank. But, you decide to persevere through the agony, and empty the tank and start it all over. New water, new sand, and.... new rock. That's the best case. Worst case, and more likely, you'll throw in the towel and find a new hobby.
There are way more variables to keeping a healthy saltwater tank than all of us could count. So we do what we can to minimize the variables. In your case, I think that rock is one doozy of a variable. I'd be willing to go so far as to call it a liability. And it is one major variable that you CAN remove altogether.
Throw out that rock before you put a drop of water in the tank and treat yourself, your sanity, (and your future livestock) to some new rock.
BryanCaruso
New member
The water level was dropped real low for the movers to move the tank. Wasn't empty but the powerhead was still stuck way up high on the glass. When I removed the power head to get it to try to work I noticed a small crack in the magnet hairline crack. Once I got my finger under it then the magnet came apart in layer as I picked at it then just put it in the trash. The vinegar was strong not 1:1 but the rocks were really white after just vinegar for 4 days then I bleached them for 2 days.
Tigé21v
Active member
Ok. I thought the thing was submerged for all that time.
You can ignore the previous post. (probably)
